Lego Blog: The Lego Movie Giant Brick Storage Boxes

Lego Accessories Are Also Lego

I believe we should start with full disclosure – I was sent this item to test and review by A Place For Everything, also I love and adore pretty much everything made by Lego so there’s a faint hint of bias… it’s Lego! I’ve already got a few of the smaller boxes and have been delighted by their stackability and overall Legoishness (I also have some of the very small brick boxes that sadly don’t actually stack, but are pretty damn cool anyway).

First Impressions

I was surprised by how big this box is, plus it arrived in a massive cardboard box which was a delight to come home to. I’ve got one of the 4 stud boxes, so this is only twice as large but still… it’s also a glorious orange colour (exclusive to the The Lego Movie range). To considerable local mirth the box tells us it has “8 Knobs” – it seems slightly odd that Lego isn’t calling them ‘studs’ as usual. I suppose that could also sound strange… It almost literally glows once the neat packaging is off.

As usual with Lego, it’s their attention to detail and quality that elevates this above being just a box. If you flip the storage brick over you find that the base is the same as any other scaled Lego brick, with the hollow studs ready for further stacking

What you’ll also notice immediately is that once opened, the brick is actually fairly shallow. On the outside it’s 18cm high x 25cm wide x 12.5cm deep; inside it loses about 7cm of height and a few round the other sides. That seems to be slightly shallower than it absolutely needs to be to enable stacking, which is a bit of a shame. I guess you can fill up the inside of the studs… That said, once stacked these things do look awesome. I’d love to have enough to build a microscale castle.

Let’s Fill It With Things

The only sensible way to test a storage box is fill it with stuff… it is slightly too shallow to put books in so that the spines stick up (similar issue with DVDs), but then that’s what shelves are for! I’d need about forty of them to put all our Lego in but here’s a few suggested uses. I tried really hard to get Merly to sit in the box, but the plastic smells too fresh and new for her dainty nose, and she does prefer cardboard.

A tonne of minfigures and bits

A heap of books

All the cuddles you need

A weekend’s worth of snacks

Whaddaya Reckon

I think these storage bricks are great – I love that you can stack them, and that the studs still have Lego embossed on them just like their tiny cousins. The internal dimensions give somewhat odd volumes, but you can always just get more of them I suppose! They are of course quite big and blocky – finding a home for them in our tiny house will be a challenge (I can hear you weeping in sympathy) but I can’t imagine anyone who wouldn’t want one – child or adult. They aren’t particularly cheap, but if you’re into Lego already that won’t surprise you –

I’d have been ecstatic to have such a thing when I was little (I’m now ecstatic in an entirely adult way, much more mature, and only spent an hour last night stacking them, filling and emptying them of things). Like the normal-sized versions, Lego bricks are an undoubted design classic, immaculately produced and gorgeous for their simplicity. There’s an additional joy of these ones though that I almost forgot to mention. The sides of the box are sort of vented, and when you drop the lid on it slowly slides shut with a very satisfying pfutting sound. It just makes them even more awesome.

A Place For Everything has them for £22.95 which is about the same as everywhere else (the pre-Lego Movie bricks are sometimes available for less) and a damn sight cheaper than Lego.com itself. You can also buy them in 1, 2 and 4 stud (or knob) sizes. They’ve also got the Giant Lego Minifigure Storage Heads including the skull which I’m feeling rather desirous of…